


Women in Espionage 101: Five Lessons Taught by Peggy Carter

by scribblemyname



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 5 Times, Friendship, Gen, SHIELD, Spies & Secret Agents, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-10
Updated: 2015-03-10
Packaged: 2018-03-12 02:26:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3340148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribblemyname/pseuds/scribblemyname
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Never underestimate a woman," Carter told Maria on her first day of working for her. "Not yourself or anyone else."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Women in Espionage 101: Five Lessons Taught by Peggy Carter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tielan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/gifts).



> Thank you so much to my beta, geckoholic.

_History by apprising them of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views. — Thomas Jefferson_

Project: Insight

Maria Hill still lived by the lessons Peggy Carter had taught her before retiring. She remembered the various times the Director would stare off into memories and share a painful truth for Maria to swallow. She remembered when Carter told her to do what's right over following orders.

"I was a fugitive from the law once." Carter gave a rueful smile. "The SSR came after me because they thought I was a traitor."

"Were you?" Maria asked, practically.

Carter's smile faded. "You can't be afraid to be deemed a traitor if that's what it takes. Just try not to actually become one."

Funny, Maria thought as she packed away any worry and prepared to take down SHIELD, the very organization Peggy Carter had built. She was following the same man as the woman whose legacy she'd inherited.

She wondered if she'd have better luck keeping Captain America alive.

Status: First Year Agent

"Never underestimate a woman," Carter told Maria on her first day of working for her. "Not yourself or anyone else."

It would be easy to underestimate herself. During the first year at SHIELD, Maria's SO criticized her form more harshly than his other _male_ recruits when they trained in the gym. His write-ups found her every flaw, every blindspot, every single point of ignorance and how it had let down her team. Maria still wasn't entirely sure how she'd landed the assistant position with Carter, no matter how hard it was for SHIELD to get their potential field agents to work mandatory hours on the administrative track.

"I'm the least promising recruit in my class," Maria paraphrased her first annual review. She stated it matter-of-factly. She was too doggedly determined to prove them wrong to get hung up on it emotionally.

But Carter looked severe. "Good. The promising ones get away with sloppy work and bad habits." She looked thoughtful. "The first woman spy I met beside myself came from Russia. She fooled everyone, including me. She was the first enemy I underestimated, almost fatally."

Maria listened carefully. She learned much when Carter decided to tell stories.

"We shut down her program, but the organization that trained her still turns out agents."

This time when Carter said, "Never underestimate a woman, especially yourself," Maria heard her and nodded in understanding.

Target: Black Widow

She did eventually hear the story about that "first woman spy" and also the story of a little girl who attacked the Howling Commandos and killed one. She was beyond horrified.

"That's—" But words failed Maria.

"Terrible." Carter nodded curtly. "Quite right. Remember something, Maria. Not everyone does this work because they were given a choice."

* * *

Agent Clint Barton brought home a redheaded assassin and spy from Russia, who wore a carefully cultivated blank expression and whose kill list stretched back far into her childhood.

"Were you ever given a choice about joining the Black Widow program?" Maria asked Natalia Romanova over crossed arms and a hard expression. She knew the answer.

Romanova knew she knew it and flicked an eyebrow but didn't speak.

Maria let the moment stretch before telling her, "You're being given one now."

Fury could rail against Barton's decision all he wanted, but Maria was backing Barton up on this one.

Promotion: Deputy Director

Maria Hill had slept with Coulson, Fury, Pierce, and half the members of the World Security Council—if the ugly SHIELD rumor pool had even an ounce of pure truth. The truth was rarely simple and never pure.

She walked through the halls with her head held high and stopped by for a visit with the old Director, a woman who still commanded respect, though everyone knew her final retirement would be forced upon her soon.

Carter smiled at the sight of her. "They'll crucify you, you know. Are you ready for that?"

Maria crossed her arms. "Did you ever sleep with Stark?"

"Howard? Good Lord, no."

Maria cracked a smile in return.

Let them talk. She had a job to do.

Avengers Initiative

Peggy Carter had been opposed to Project: Gladiator, despite the ample good SHIELD had done with it, and she didn't have anything good to say about SHIELD's work with Weapon X.

"Steve was a good man, and that's what made the difference between a mere man with too much strength and Captain America, who inspired millions." And changed the course of the war, as they both knew.

Carter shook her head. Maria knew the impatience was with the men who had come before and the high ambitions of the men in charge now.

"Howard was like Fury," Carter went on. "He had so many good intentions, but his weapons nearly destroyed the world and Steve—" But there she stopped. "A man can have good intentions and still be wrong."

* * *

Maria didn't forget that when she read through the sweeping goals Fury outlined in his Avengers Initiative. She didn't forget it when they chased Banner and courted superhumans and reached for more power and less accountability.

She didn't forget to do what Peggy Carter did: accept the things she could not change and change the things she could.

Fury wanted a team accountable to SHIELD. Maria made them accountable to the world.

Coda

"You knew her?" Steve asked.

He looked terrible. He looked like they had just fought a war with HYDRA inside of SHIELD, and Maria felt like it.

She smiled that same slight smile she'd often shared with the Director before Carter had lost her memory and Maria had lost her personal life. "She's the reason I became an agent."

Coulson had followed as hard as he could in Captain America's footsteps. Maria had followed after Carter's.


End file.
